A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains or may contain material which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the photocopy reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure in exactly the form it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.
The present invention relates in general to a gaming device, and more particularly to a gaming device comprising an apparatus and method for providing a player an award through the elimination and/or replacement of one or more awards.
Gaming devices and bonus rounds of gaming devices generally provide positive responses to inputs such as a player""s selection. That is, when a player makes a choice in a gaming device by pressing a button or using another input device, the game normally continues play or awards a value associated with the button or input device. The player keeps or wins that which the player chooses. One example of such a game is a video poker game. In a standard video poker game, for example, the game deals the player a plurality of cards, the player selects one or more desired cards and the game continues play with the selected cards.
In known bonus games, when the game or player chooses from a plurality of awards, the game discards, discontinues using or does not award that which the player does not choose. European Patent Application No. EP 0 945 837 A2 filed on Mar. 18, 1999 and assigned on its face to WMS Gaming, Inc. discloses a bonus scheme of this type. A player has one or more opportunities to choose masked bonus awards from a group of symbols displayed to the player. When the player chooses a masked symbol, the game removes the mask and either awards the player with a bonus value or terminates the bonus round. The outcome depends upon whether the player selects an award or a terminator. To increase excitement and enjoyment, the game may reveal the contents of unselected symbols, however, the values of the unselected symbols do not mathematically factor into the player""s award.
Gaming machines may also include bonus rounds in which the gaming device uses unselected awards; however, such uses do not involve mathematically applying the value of the unselected award. Foreign patent WO9732285 entitled, Slot Machine Game with Roaming Wild Card, having a publication date of Sep. 4, 1997, discloses an example. In this application, a slot machine having a video display contains a plurality of rotatable reels with game symbols. When the player receives a triggering symbol or combination, the game produces a bonus symbol. The bonus symbol roams from game symbol to game symbol temporarily changing the game symbol to a bonus symbol. If the change results in a winning combination, the player receives an award. The unselected symbols (i.e., ones which the bonus symbol does not change) are thus used here to form a winning combination and not to mathematically figure into an award value.
The gaming device of the present invention provides a gaming device having a bonus round which provides the player with a plurality of choices or symbols having indicia relating to a theme of the gaming device. Each of the choices or symbols masks an award that is assigned or associated with the choice or symbol. One or more selections are made from the plurality of choices or symbols. The game awards the player each of the awards assigned or associated with the unselected choices or symbols. In this embodiment, the game eliminates, discards or ignores, and preferably reveals, the selected choices or symbols. Thus, in this embodiment of the present invention, the player wins that which the player does not select.
In another embodiment of the present invention, the game does not discard or ignore the selected choices or symbols. The act of selecting a choice or symbol changes or replaces, rather than eliminates, the award of the selected choice or symbol. In one example, the awards associated or assigned to the unselected choices or symbols are gaming device credits, while the awards associated or assigned to selected choices or symbols are modifiers such as multipliers. In another example, the opposite occurs, wherein the unselected choices or symbols are modifiers such as multipliers and the selected choices or symbols are game credits. In both cases, the game preferably sums the credits, sums the multipliers and multiplies the total credits by the total multipliers to produce an ultimate award.
For either embodiment, the present invention contemplates three general ways or methods by which choices or selectors are chosen. In one selection method, the game enables the player to select one or more choices or selectors. In the first embodiment, wherein the player receives that which the player does not choose, the game preferably directs the player to make a set number of selections because the player does not otherwise want to choose and eliminate any more awards than the player has to. In the second embodiment, wherein the game changes or replaces a selected symbol, the game preferably enables the player to convert as many awards as the player desires. The player has to choose between credits or multipliers.
In a second selection method, the game randomly selects a set or random number of symbols. In either of the elimination or replacement embodiments, the game makes the selections randomly or blindly and does not attempt to favor or disfavor the player.
In a third selection method, the game strategically selects one or more of the symbols. The strategic selection method primarily applies to the second embodiment, wherein the game changes a selected symbol. The game processor may determine the strategy of how many selections to give the player depending upon the results of the previous selections. The strategy is preferably pre-determined by the processor and it may be optimally calculated to enhance the enjoyment and reward the player. The determination of the strategy may also be allowed to be determined by the player after each selection. An astute and aggressive player, after playing the replacement bonus round, can determine the optimum method for determining the number of symbols to select and thereby choosing the number of credits or multipliers the player wishes to obtain. Generally, the player does so by determining, after playing the bonus round and mapping the awards, the average value of the multipliers and the credits and iteratively plugging in selected values into a suitable equation to determine whether or not to change another symbol (i.e., from a credit to a multiplier or from a multiplier to a credit.) The present invention further contemplates programming a processor of the gaming device to strategically select and change or replace symbols according to the optimum method, so as to attempt to maximize the player""s award.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a gaming device, wherein the game provides awards from unselected choices rather than from selected choices.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a gaming device, wherein the game combines selected and unselected values to determine a player""s award.
Other objects, features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following detailed disclosure, taken in conjunction with the accompanying sheets of drawings, wherein like numerals refer to like parts, elements, components, steps and processes.